We're happy to announce some great news! The real-estate industry-backed effort to undermine Mountain View rent control failed to gather enough signatures to qualify for the November 2018 ballot. The so-called “Mountain View Homeowner, Renter, and Taxpayer Protection Initiative” would have placed a poison pill in the 2016 Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Act, also known as Measure V, effectively eliminating the applicability of rent control to tenants across the city.
Tenants Together was proud to support the effort to pass Measure V in 2016. This win, led by the Mountain View Tenants’ Coalition (MVTC) and the Day Worker Center of Mountain View, was an inspiration to renters around the state who sought to similarly pass rent control measures despite little funding and mostly volunteer and community organizing. For this effort to fight the rent control repeal, MVTC joined up with the Mountain View Mobile Home Alliance and the Silicon Valley Democratic Socialists of America.
Signature gatherers for the California Apartment Association-supported “sneaky repeal” reported that they were being offered an unprecedented $40 per signature. This affected the ability of housing advocates to gather signatures for local measures as far away as San Francisco.
As the MVTC wrote, “Signature gathering drives backed by landlord trade groups like the CAA have been criticized for employing paid signature gatherers who misrepresent petitions to obtain signatures in Richmond, Santa Rosa, Pacifica, and Alameda. In March 2018, the District Attorney of San Mateo County filed 21 felony charges against signature gatherers financed by the CAA for forging signatures in a Pacifica anti-rent-control campaign.”
Many Mountain View voters filed to revoke their signatures, feeling they were misled. According to the City Clerk, nearly 300 people filed signed signature withdrawal forms with the city. The rent control repeal campaign missed the deadline to qualify for the November 2018 ballot, but may continue to gather signatures for the 2020 ballot.
As we look toward repealing Costa-Hawkins (Yes On Prop 10!) in November, this victory is a reminder that people power can beat big real estate money. We've done it before, and we'll do it again, together.
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Tenants Together was proud to support the effort to pass Measure V in 2016. This win, led by the Mountain View Tenants’ Coalition (MVTC) and the Day Worker Center of Mountain View, was an inspiration to renters around the state who sought to similarly pass rent control measures despite little funding and mostly volunteer and community organizing. For this effort to fight the rent control repeal, MVTC joined up with the Mountain View Mobile Home Alliance and the Silicon Valley Democratic Socialists of America.
Signature gatherers for the California Apartment Association-supported “sneaky repeal” reported that they were being offered an unprecedented $40 per signature. This affected the ability of housing advocates to gather signatures for local measures as far away as San Francisco.
As the MVTC wrote, “Signature gathering drives backed by landlord trade groups like the CAA have been criticized for employing paid signature gatherers who misrepresent petitions to obtain signatures in Richmond, Santa Rosa, Pacifica, and Alameda. In March 2018, the District Attorney of San Mateo County filed 21 felony charges against signature gatherers financed by the CAA for forging signatures in a Pacifica anti-rent-control campaign.”
Many Mountain View voters filed to revoke their signatures, feeling they were misled. According to the City Clerk, nearly 300 people filed signed signature withdrawal forms with the city. The rent control repeal campaign missed the deadline to qualify for the November 2018 ballot, but may continue to gather signatures for the 2020 ballot.
As we look toward repealing Costa-Hawkins (Yes On Prop 10!) in November, this victory is a reminder that people power can beat big real estate money. We've done it before, and we'll do it again, together.
In solidarity,
Tenants Together / Inquilinxs Juntos